The main protagonist of the series. A lazy student at Tomobiki High School, Class 2-4, Ataru suffers from an incredible amount of bad luck, having been born on Friday the Thirteenth of April during a major earthquake… which also happened to be Butsumetsu, the unluckiest day of the Buddhist calendar. Thanks to this lack of good fortune, his triumph in the game of tag that saved Earth from Oni invasion turned into a defeat for him. His victory statement, intended to confirm his then-girlfriend Shinobu's promise to marry him if he won, was misinterpreted by Lum to be a marriage proposal to her. Much to his chagrin, she accepted.

Abhorrent Admirer: To nearly all the supporting female characters and every pretty girl he sees. He literally throws himself at the girls he likes and always gets beaten up as a result.

Accidental Marriage: With Lum since the first episode/chapter. Ataru had been promised marriage by Shinobu if he could win the challenge, so upon catching Lum he declared "Now I can get married!".

Accidental Proposal: He ended up engaged to Lum because after he defeated her in the game of tag she misinterpreted his statement "Now I can get married (to Shinobu)!" to be a marriage proposal for her.

Adorkable: He fits the trope despite being a Jerkass and a pervert. He's basically a scrawny, dorky, perpetually hapless loser who still manages to attract a very beautiful alien like Lum (among others) who loves him despite his many human flaws.

Book Dumb: He’s often shown to be a slacker and an underachiever with his schoolwork, but can be quite crafty when it comes to his schemes.

Born Unlucky: His birthday is even April13th† (Takahashi either got lucky or did her research on this one; the manga began in 1978, and April 13th 1962 – when Ataru would have been born – was indeed a Friday), and the litany of bad luck omens associated with him appeared before he was even born. Not to mention his Meaningful Name (roughly translated, "hit on the head with a falling star").

Butt-Monkey: Is he ever. This guy never catches a break. He gets better in later chapters where he actually becomes more clever and able to come out on top, especially in his petty rivalries with Mendou or Ten. Though he still gets a lot of punishment when he's being a Casanova Wannabe.

Cannot Spit It Out: Ataru can't admit he really loves Lum because, if he did, he'd have to give up his dreams of a harem. Though in the fifth movie when Lum threatens to erase the memory of herself from everyone on Earth, he won't say it because if he said it at that point it would be a Cassandra Truth.

Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Played with. Lum is the only female in the universe he doesn't harass. Ironically, she is also the only female who'd be happy to get his attention. However, the reason behind this is, at least in the beginning, that he simply doesn't want Lum as a Love Interest – at first, he prefers Shinobu, and later he'd prefer any other woman but Lum. It takes some relationship development before he properly fits this trope.

Casanova Wannabe: He is always ready to ask a random girl off the street for her address and phone number. This despite having an alien beauty (who has electric powers and is deathly jealous, to boot - just do the math) for a fiancée. His main trait, though, is Cosmic Plaything considering how much he pays for this.

Ataru has the occasional Crowning Moment of Awesome, but the manga version of him doesn't suffer from the Reset Button and, by the end, has changed considerably. It becomes obvious later in the series that he cares about Lum, although he is still too proud to admit it and usually only shows this when he's afraid of losing her. He also becomes less of a Idiot Hero in later chapters.

In early chapters, he clearly hated Lum enough that he won't mind if Mendo got together with her. A couple chapters later, after he realized she'd actually be his perfect girl if she's human, when the subject came up again, he actually hesitated. Mid-series, he's actually OK with going on dates with her in human form, and started getting jealous when other guys show interest in Lum, actually referring to her as his woman at one point. Late in the series, he starts going on dates with her without any preconditions (granted, the one example shown was botched when he actually managed to pick up a girl as he was going to meet Lum) and was clearly shows great concern for her well-being. By the end of the series, he'll gladly drop everything, including his collection of girls' contact info, to save Lum.

Commitment Issues: He does love Lum, but he hates the idea of settling down with only one girl.

Cosmic Plaything: He was born on the second unluckiest day in the Japanese calendar: The thirteenth of April – the fourth month of the year, as well as the day remembering the death of Buddha. His name means "hit by a shooting star", which would take phenomenally bad luck.

Crazy Jealous Guy: He won't admit it, even to himself, but he does not like seeing Lum with other guys.

Ataru is a rather luckless, perverted version of this trope. Heaven help anyone between him and a beautiful girl, or the girl herself if she tries to use him to get at Lum and then underestimates how far he'll go for a kiss or grope. Nothing will stop him – common sense, decency, the law, fate, the gods, beatings, near-electrocutions, explosions, military-grade weaponry, armies, you name it. Even evil spirits are scared of him. He demonstrates a tenacity that makes his "friends" wonder if he's even human.

Whenever he's faced with losing Lum there's nothing that will stop him from taking her back, as shown most clearly when she lost her memory and Mendou convinced her she was his fiancee (and Ataru risked dying to save her). Also in the manga finale/fifth movie.

Dork Horse Candidate: In Shuutaro Mendou's introductory episode/chapter, Mendou runs for class president on the platform of draconian punishments for misbehavior… except not for the girls (this is all it takes to win the vote of every girl in class). Ataru is pressed into running against him by the boys, leading to a tied vote. To resolve that, they duel and Ataru wins, making Mendou the vice president.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: He saved the world in the first episode/chapter, and Shinobu had promised to marry him in reward. Not only is he treated as a nuisance even by his parents, but Shinobu went back on her promise.note It didn't help that Lum misinterpreted his victory speech.

Everyone Has Standards: In Movie 1, he rejects Elle for being a Harem Seeker who collects handsome young men and keeps them in carbon freeze. But mainly for being much more of a man-eater than he is a womanizer. Then in Inaba's introductory arc, he becomes disgusted with one version of himself in a future where he succeeded to create his harem by chasing Lum away through treating her more poorly then usual without a shred of guilt or remorse, which could have been considered a Moral Event Horizon for Ataru to a point Ataru considered that version of himself a Slimeball who is more selfish then his current self.

Iron Butt-Monkey: It's even lampshaded in one book, where he gets a broken arm, and everyone is in disbelief.

Jerkass Has a Point: He may be a Jerkass, but he has every right to be annoyed by Lum. She's the one who assumed Ataru wanted to marry her (when all he said was "Now I can get married", referring to Shinobu), and basically intruded on every aspect of his life since then, acting like a possessive Clingy Jealous Girl.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ataru is lecherous, lazy, selfish, and stubborn, but he has deeply buried noble qualities that most people, including himself, can't see.

Kavorka Man: He's considered by most girls to be the most undesirable boy in Tomobiki – unattractive, lecherous, obnoxious, selfish, and a Jerkass to boot… but Lum is a beautiful alien princess who loves him absolutely and would do anything for him, and before that he had managed to snag Shinobu – considered well-above-average in looks – as his girlfriend. In the first movie, another beautiful Alien princess is in love with him. And there's also a ghost girl (Nozomi) and Tsuyuko (a girl cursed by a rain god), who seem to genuinely fall for Ataru during the series. Neither stick around long enough to find out what a sleazy lecher he is though as they both get Put on a Bus.

Loser Protagonist: Mainly because of his lechery and other human faults. He was born on the most unlucky day of the year in Japan. His own parents often have no shame in saying how much they wish he wasn't born. He's unpopular with most of the boys and almost all the girls at his high school. Even when the beautiful female alien, Lum, comes into his life, he's still unlucky because of all the baggage she brings with her.

Lovable Sex Maniac: In the 10th anniversary movie Always My Darling, Princess Lupika's computer pinpoints him as the most lecherous man in the universe.

Love You and Everybody: Of course he loves Lum… and Shinobu, and Sakura, and Ran, and Ryunnosuke, and Benten, and Oyuki, and Ryoko…

Meaningful Name: Ataru means "to get hit" and Moroboshi means "falling star". A metaphor for his cosmically miserable luck. Several opening and ending themes show a star smacking him in the head at the end.

Significant Birth Date: He was born on April 13th, the second-unluckiest day of the year in the Japanese calendar, and in the year he was born was also the anniversary of the Buddha's death.

Smarter Than You Look: He’s frequently referred to as stupid and is considered the village idiot by nearly everyone (including his own parents and sometimes Lum herself). But despite his usual foolish behavior, he can be quite cunning and resourceful. He has managed to outwit nearly everyone else in the cast at least once.

The Trickster: Eventually evolves into this. Lampooning authority and making basically everybody around him look as foolish as he does.

Unlucky Everydude: He falls behind in the "Everydude" part, though, seeing as how he's a Determinator and Loveable Sex Maniac of such intense perversion he's outright stated to be the most concentrated source of lust in the known universe. He comes off as average because everyone else he hangs out with is even more bizarre...

Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: While he has his redeeming qualities (sometimes), Ataru is a Jerkass and deserves about 80% of what happens to him. However, the rest of the cast isn't much better than him.

Weirdness Magnet: The name of the series itself can be translated as "Those Annoying Aliens", suggesting that the galaxy and series' version of Earth is teeming with sentient species who are all irritating in their own ways. Ataru is therefore simply unlucky enough to catch the attention of all of them.

The female protagonist of the series* (but started out as the antagonist). Lum is a beautiful Oni alien princess who can fly and can generate electricity from her body, up to and including lightning bolts. She falls in love with Ataru after she misinterprets his "marriage proposal" (referring to Shinobu) as one for her. Most of the time she's good-natured, sweet, innocent, and faithful… but she's also prone to intense jealousy and has a very hot temper, which never bodes well for her "fiancé".

Beware the Nice Ones: She's quite sweet-natured, but that doesn't stop her from (non-fatally) electrocuting Ataru whenever he does anything perverted… which is nearly all the time.

Big Sister Instinct: Lum is very protective of Ten, especially when Ataru picks on him, but she also scolds him sometimes when he’s being too much of a brat.

Birds of a Feather: It's subtly hinted that part of the reason why Lum is attracted to Ataru (the other part being that she can recognize his deeply buried noble qualities) is because they're much the same; Lum is also sneaky, mischievous, bad-tempered, and uninhibited.

She was supposed to be a One-Shot Character, but fans (and Takahashi's editor) loved her so she returned in the third chapter and became a Deuteragonist, love interest, and poster girl for the series.

In many foreign adaptations she also becomes the title character and the series is known by some variant of her name.* (e.g.: "Lum", "Lamu" [a more direct transliteration of the kana in her name], "Lum the Invader Girl", etc.) She is often believed to be the main character due to this. To this day she remains one of the most recognizable comic characters ever created.

Characterization Marches On: Early chapters of the manga portrayed her as a clear-cut antagonist, if not an outright villain. Needless to say, her characterization wildly changed before the manga was even a single year old, making her the short-tempered yet more likeable character we are familiar with. This very likely has something to do with the fact that Lum wasn't originally meant to be the main heroine, but an obstacle for Ataru's relationship with Shinobu, but Lum's popularity forced Rumiko Takahashi to change the Official Couple.

Clingy Jealous Girl: She is very possessive of Ataru and usually zaps him with lightning as a punishment for his "infidelity".note In quotes because Ataru never gets to date, much less have sex with, any girl. Not even Shinobu, the only other being in the universe to have ever been willing to put out for him.

Dude Magnet: Almost every named male teenager in the series is in love with her, and therefore intensely jealous of Ataru. Ironically the only one who is not interested in her is Ataru himself, or so it seems (deep down he is).

Early on, Ataru forces Cherry to give him a set of yellow ribbons that, if tied around Lum's horns, make her lose her powers.

In an early manga chapter, Lum decides to try visiting Ataru's class looking like a normal human girl. Part of her disguise was to use a liquid that softened her horns so they could be flattened to look like ornaments. The horn-softener appears in the anime when she arranges a secret date with him (long story).

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lum is clingy, possessive, controlling, and can get violent when she’s angry. But she’s also sweet and loving towards the people she cares about.

Kaleidoscope Hair: In the manga. Changed in the anime to its iconic green because iridescence was next to impossible to animate in 1981 (and is still extremely difficult today).

Kiss-Kiss-Slap: She's very affectionate to her 'Darling', but doesn't hesitate to zap him with lightning whenever he hits on another girl, which happens a lot.

Lethal Chef: There's nothing technically wrong with her cooking; it's just that she tends to overuse the spices to make it taste like the food on her home planet (and by Oni standards, she's actually a good cook). She comments that Earth-food is completely flavorless and enjoys drinking Tabasco sauce straight out of the bottle.

Limited Wardrobe: Aside from her school uniform and occasional street clothes, the only outfit she owns is her trademark bikini and go-go boots combo. When it gets stolen by Tobimaro and his henchwomen, Lum angrily chases them down while screaming about how that's her only good set of clothes.

Love Martyr: Ataru is lecherous, obnoxious, selfish, and a Jerkass to boot, but Lum still loves him and would do anything for him despite how he's often rude to her and would have no problem groping/flirting with other women, even in front of her.

Love Revelation Epiphany: She fell in love with Ataru after she misinterpreted something he said to himself as a marriage proposal to her.

Magical Girlfriend: A famous parody. Ataru is an Unlucky Everydude whose life gets turned around when the beautiful alien princess Lum falls in love with him. Ataru is also a slovenly, pitifully-desperate pervert who likely deserves all the trouble he goes through, and Lum is a Tsundere/borderline-Yandere who loves him despite his lechery but isn't averse to zapping him with her electrical powers when he strays. She's also somewhat bumbling, usually causing more problems then she solves. Add to this that when she showed up, he already had a girlfriend he liked better.

Modesty Shorts: A teacher once gave her a pair of gym shorts to wear under her skirt after noticing that she was flashing her classmates whenever she would fly.

Monster Roommate: Zigzagged. Depending on the chapter, she switches from living in Ataru's closet to staying in her spaceship.

Mood-Swinger: Lum is a very sweet, innocent, faithful, and good-natured girl, but she can also be jealous and has a very hot temper.

Ms. Fanservice: One of most famous. She is a beautiful alien princess who wears a tiger-striped bikini and Ataru steal her bikini top leaving Lum with her naked breast exposed in the first episode is one of most iconic scene in the anime world.

No Accounting for Taste: No one can figure out why such a beautiful girl as Lum is in love with a lecherous loser like Ataru. This includes Ataru himself.

Nurse with Good Intentions: As Ran knows from experience, whenever her friends are ill she comes to help… but only causes more trouble, up to blowing up their home.

Parental Substitute: To her little cousin Jariten. In a way Lum is the only consistent mother figure he has ever had in his life. She's his legal guardian and takes care of him almost as if he was her child.

Lum (and her mom) can generate electricity, both shocking whoever they touch and launching lightning bolts from their fingers. Lum routinely uses this to punish Ataru for angering her, but she can't entirely control it, resulting in the obvious implication that Ataru's hesitance to get near her is partially due to her tendency to shock him accidentally when she hugs him or tries to sleep in his bed.

One chapter shows that she actually will generate electricity as a form of affection. In the chapter, she will fall for whoever holds her heart and act like a smitten teenager around that person. Several people got her heart, but she only electrocuted Ataru, even claiming that to be special exclamation of love.

Single-Target Sexuality: While she has an ex-boyfriend (Rei, whom she can't stand), Lum never shows interest in anyone but her "Darling" throughout the series.

Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: A Trope Codifier. While Lum actually doesn't really mind Ataru being a pervert, she would like him to do better with his life instead of just being a lecherous loser. She would also much rather Ataru act like that toward her rather than every girl except her.

What Does She See in Him?: No one seems to understand why Lum is in love with Ataru, particularly her many admirers. For the record, Ataru has no idea either.

Yandere: She is determined to keep Ataru no matter how much it literally hurts him. She also intentionally torpedoed his relationship with Shinobu. And there was that one time she nearly started an intergalactic war to keep him from marrying another alien princess…

Ataru's childhood friend and classmate. Until Lum showed up she was also Ataru’s girlfriend. As encouragement for Ataru during the tag game, she promised him that if he won she would marry him. This did indeed spur him to victory, but it also resulted in his victory cry that led to Lum deciding to stay and claim Ataru instead.

Shinobu is a neat, sweet, petite young lady of above-average physical attractiveness. Despite these very feminine characteristics, however, she has an extremely short temper and often displays superhuman strength – she's one of the strongest characters in the series, able to easily throw classroom desks or any other large/heavy object/structure on-hand as needed.

Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Lum's Veronica. She serves as the down-to-earth childhood friend to Ataru, in contrast to the exotic and sexy alien Lum. However, Shinobu soon stops competing with Lum as she loses interest in Ataru.

Beware the Nice Ones: Shinobu usually acts like a cute, fragile teenage girl who still likes to speak her mind. However, when her temper is pushed too far, she gets violently mad, easily able to lift heavy objects and throw them at her target (usually Ataru).

Hopeless Suitor: Toward Mendou. He ends up disappointing her because he only has eyes for Lum.

I Can Change My Beloved: Early in the story, it was obvious Shinobu really cared about Ataru. Unlike Love Martyr Lum, she actually wanted him to change his obnoxious ways and become a better person* (Lum wouldn't mind Ataru's perversion if he directed it toward her). This obviously never happens and Shinobu gradually loses interest in him.

Heir to the Mendou Conglomerate with staggering wealth and its own private army. He commutes to school in a gigantic helicopter that is more like a flying mansion. A descendant of a samurai family, Shutaro often carries a katana with him, which at any moment could be flying at the face of Ataru, who has become adept at blocking it with his bare hands. Although very handsome and intelligent, he is truly just as foolish and lecherous as Ataru, just much more sophisticated in his approach.

Animal Motifs: The Mendou family crest is an octopus, and Mendou himself keeps several as pets. Furthermore, he is offended if people eat takoyaki in his presence.

Broken Ace: Introduced as The Ace (and his clueless fangirls still see him as such), but it's very obvious he's anything but. He frequently makes a fool of himself, especially when he's being too vain or Holier Than Thou, and Ataru is able to use Mendou's claustrophobia and ego against him.

Foil: To Ataru. Ataru comes across as a moronic, lecherous, selfish jerk but he has more Hidden Depths and Hidden Heart of Gold than expected. By contrast, Mendou seems a handsome, suave, smart gentleman, but as noted above, he's actually just as petty, foolish, and lecherous as Ataru but hides it better.

Gentleman and a Scholar: Downplayed. Mendou is responsible, one of the best students in the class, and acts polite and well-mannered to girls, but he's too much of a stuck-up Spoiled Brat to qualify.

Inferiority Superiority Complex: Anytime he finds himself second best at something he feels he should be best at, he tends to collapse - The time Rei turned up and was better looking then him (Mendou's response after coming out of shock "Money is more important than looks!!"), and all the times Ryuunosuke winds up getting a bigger pile of fan mail then him.

Jerkass Has a Point: The most malicious thing he ever does in-series, taking advantage of Lum's amnesia and claiming she is his fiancée (thus taking advantage of a woman to a degree that not even Ataru would ever do), he does out of disgust towards Ataru's apathy concerning Lum's disappearance. Even then, it takes Lum's Stormtroopers to convince Ataru to get his head in the game.

Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted. On said occasions, Mendou draws his katana (in the anime it is called Murasame) and attempts to slice Ataru in two, but he never succeeds.

Lord Error-Prone: He's incredibly wealthy, carries a sword everywhere he goes, and generally acts the cool sophisticate, an act for which the local girls fawn over him in adoration. Scratch the gloss, however, and he's really no better than Loveable Sex Maniac Ataru Moroboshi himself. In fact, he's debatably worse, given that he's utterly afraid of the dark, claustrophobic, and a Dirty Coward, while Ataru is capable of insane acts of bravery and determination.

My Sister Is Off-Limits!: Tends to beat up any guy that shows interest in Ryoko. Ryoko takes advantage of this by pretending to be interested in other guys (usually Ataru or Tobimaro) to arouse her brother's wrath on them.

Noble Male, Roguish Male: He acts as the noble to Ataru's roguish. However, deep down Mendou is just as roguish as Ataru.

Not So Different: Take away his power and sophisticated manners, and Mendou is the same as Ataru.

Perfectly Arranged Marriage: After seeing how she really looks like under her armor, Mendou becomes very motivated to marry his arranged fiancee Asuka. Asuka, on the other hand, comes to accept him after she finds out he's a "big brother" like Tobimaro.

Spoiled Brat: Shutaro might border on being a Royal Brat, due to the fact his family is insanely wealthy (among other things, they have their own private army and own a considerable chunk of Japan).

Took a Level in Jerkass: In a 2-parter story where Lum's UFO crashes on the Mendou estate, causing her to lose her memory. Shutaro takes advantage of this by claiming her as his fiance and then isolating her from outside contact. When Lum's Stormtroopers get ready to launch a rescue mission, Megane even leaves behind his will as he does not expect to survive, and he's right as the Mendou private army is sent out to kill them!

Odd Friendship: He is accompanied by the ghost cat Kotatsu-neko on almost every occasion.

Skewed Priorities: You'd think he should become irate over the constant alien invasions, destruction, parties, chases and such, but it doesn't really faze him at all. But be seen running in the halls and you'll be holding buckets of water.

The Stoic: He's a very calm old man who rarely acts in anger and always keeps a straight face.

Unfazed Everyman: All of the truly insane things that happen in the school every day don't seem to have any affect on him.

The English teacher of the Class 2-4, "Classroom of Failure". Originally contracted by the Principal of Tomobiki via the "Trump-Card Teachers" Organization. A sad middle-aged man whose only interest is to teach at Tomobiki High, but he fails due to the constant interruptions during class, when the classroom itself is not destroyed by Lum, Ten, or Shinobu.

Adapted Out: At one point in the manga, he refers to having a wife and kid at home, they're never mentioned again, and don't exist in the anime where he has a hopeless crush on Sakura.

Hopeless Suitor: To Sakura in the anime, unfortunately for him she is already in a relationship with Tsubame. His dream wife in Beautiful Dreamer even resembles her.

Hot for Student: It's occasionally speculated in the series that he shows interest in the girls in his class. Most notably when he is teaching Ryuunosuke to be a proper lady. Also, early episodes suggest he has a soft spot for Lum, though he's never seen to pursue her.

A student in Class 2-4 with Ataru et al. She was born a girl and sees herself as a girl, but her eccentric father raised her as a boy and calls her his "son", leading to her extremely masculine speech (and name). Her greatest desire is to behave appropriately for her gender.

Ambiguously Gay: When Ryuunosuke is asked about people she has ever had a crush on before, she can only name girls. She is also seen to treat women very gently and has recently got a crush on Shinobu. However, it's unclear if she's really a lesbian or just admires the femininity of a woman, which she wishes to have.

Bokukko: Takes it beyond even this. She uses "ore", a hyper-masculine and rather rude personal pronoun. Her catchphrase is "Ore wa onna da zo!" ("I'm a woman, dammit!"). Lampshaded and made more ridiculous by Ataru and Mendou trying to teach her to talk like a girl and showing themselves really proficient at it.

Does Not Like Men: She hates being touched by men and repeatedly denied them, and even the idea of being with one disgusts her. It's only when they're being inappropriate though, as she can treat boys who don't jump on her normally.

Even the Girls Want Her: Yes, the female population of the school is aware that she's female and forced into Bifauxnen status by her father. They don't care — she's still hot. Subverted with Kagura and Ran that mistake her for a boy.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once you get past her rough behavior, Ryuunosuke is actually one of the nicest characters in the series. She is genuinely nice to people who want to be her friends and doesn't even know what "cunningness" means.

Suppressed Mammaries: Her father forces her to conceal her bust under a tight chest-wrapping bandage because he doesn't want to accept that Ryuunosuke is a girl.

Tomboy Angst: She might be tough and aggressive due to her upbringing, but Ryuunosuke really just wants to be feminine. She wants to wear dresses, put on makeup and date just like normal girls do. It's difficult since her overbearing father keeps foiling her every effort to be like a woman.

Tomboyish Name: She has one of the most stereotypically masculine names that can exist in Japanese. To explain: As a rule, -suke is masculine, it's almost like -son (Jacobson, etc) in English. This is due to the fact her father is one of the most extreme examples of 'wanted a boy' in fiction - he forces her to act, talk, dress, and pretend to be a boy when she wants to be feminine… which she can't pull off because of her upbringing.

Tomboyish Voice: She has a voice so deep it can easily pass as a teenage boy's that hasn't broken yet.

Only Known by Their Nickname: The names they are known with refers to some physical characteristic of them, and means glasses (Megane), permanent (Perm?), tiny (Chibi) and crew cut (Kakugari). That said, Megane's, Chibi's and Kakugari's real names are actually known (Satoshi, Akira and Hiroyuki respectively), with only Perm's being unknown.

Otaku: Megane is a caricature of a crazed, obsessed otaku taken to an extreme. The best hits are the battle armor he built for himself and the ability to identify on sight the exact variant of a tank-and operate it.

Aliens

Lum's infant cousin. He has a single horn on his head and can breathe fire.

Achilles' Heel: Ten is scared of his own mother, who is an firefighter and extremely strict towards pyromaniacs (ironically Ten can breath fire). He seems to be hiding this ability from her so he wouldn't get into trouble with her.

Bratty Half-Pint: He loves to act high and mighty, and puts on a façade of innocence ("I'm a good boy" is his Catch-Phrase), but in reality he mixes a considerable amount of mischievousness with the same lecherous attitudes as Ataru and Mendo. He loves to stir up trouble to keep himself amused, playfully flirts with every girl he sees, and because he's considered an adorable infant, he can usually rely on women to protect him when he gets into more trouble than his ability to fly and breathe fire can handle. And even when they turn against him, Lum always supports him, to the extent she pays it no mind at all when, say, Ten shows up at Ataru's school and starts randomly biting people to soothe his toothache.

Lum's "best" childhood friend. She appears to be a sweet and lovely redhead, but in actuality has a violent, evil side. She is a succubus who has the ability to suck the vitality out of a person through kissing them on the lips.

As a child, Ran was often hurt or got into trouble because of the antics of the more carefree and irresponsible Lum. Also, she is madly in love with Lum's ex-boyfriend Rei (who still likes Lum, much to both girls' horror). As a result, she hates Lum and often wants to take revenge on her.

Cute and Psycho: She is the poster child for (and likely the inspiration for all other) characters of the type, at least in anime. On the outside, she's a cute redhead who likes frilly clothing, baking, and flirting with Ataru. In reality, she's an embittered childhood rival of Lum who is out for some very violent revenge on the girl for, well, a lot of things that aren't entirely Lum's fault.

Enemy Mine: In Movie 1, Elle learns the hard way that you do not steal a girl's boyfriend from her when said girl's rival was planning to use him to torment her. Needless to say, Ran assists Lum in rescuing Ataru from the planned shotgun wedding.

Kiss of Death: Ran has the power to suck the youth from someone by kissing them. She tries to use the power on an unsuspecting Ataru, who had just downed a vitality elixir two minutes earlier (so the effects cancelled out), so he just assumed she likes him. She can also reverse the process with another kiss.

Meaningful Name: Ran has two meanings, both of which are suited to her warped personality. One meaning can be taken as "orchid", the other as "civil war".

Mood-Swinger: The two sides of her personality constantly compete for dominance. Because of that she switches from psycho-bitch to airhead and vice-versa rather suddenly and frequently.

Through His Stomach: Ran and Rei start dating at one point and Ran prepares a lot of food for him each time, though food is probably the reason why Rei dates her. It's even compared to raising a pet in the manga's omake.

Lum's ex-boyfriend. Rei is a very handsome Oni, to the point that most girls fall for him just by seeing his face. However, he regularly shapeshifts into an ushitora – a huge goofy-looking cross between a tiger and a bull. He speaks almost no Japanese because what little intelligence he has is channelled into eating or looking for things to eat. Lum dumped him some time before the start of the series because she tired of his stupidity, but he followed her to Earth to try and get her back. Ran is madly in love with him and plies him with her cooking.

Big Eater: He's a non-stop eating machine who is hardly ever seen not stuffing his face, or looking for eats.

Bishounen: Rei is a tall, stoic, green-haired space bishōnen who drives men to despair and women to squee.

Brainless Beauty: He can woo any human woman, regardless of her age, with his beauty, but he's also dumb as a post. It was even stated in the manga that looks is all he has going for him.

Chick Magnet: Rei breaks up loving couples just by walking past them, and causes squees whenever anything of the female gender sees him. His being dumb as a plank and loving only food does nothing to dissuade the girls...except Lum.

The Ditz: He doesn't seem to have a brain in his head, clueless as he is.

Language Barrier: Rei doesn't speak much. Whenever he does, he is only capable of uttering one word at a time. This is mostly because Rei doesn't know how to speak Japanese, but also because he's just so incredibly unbelievably stupid.

The Quiet One: Not very talkative because he doesn't know how to speak Japanese.

The Stoic: In his human form. Not so much when he gets excited and turns into a monster.

Through His Stomach: He reveres anyone who brings him food... or whatever can even be considered food. He dates Ran pretty much only because she keeps feeding him and Rei just learns through conditioning that Ran=food. It's been compared to keeping a pet.

Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can transform himself into an ushitora – a big bull-demon with tiger stripes – whenever he's excited or angry.

The "Crow Princess". A humanoid female from an alien race of crow tengu, her culture's laws state that she must mate with the man who awakens her from slumber with a kiss. Unfortunately for her, that person turned out to be Ataru. While she had no desire to mate with him, she initially tried to turn the perverted lech into someone worthy of her… but gave up once it became obvious that reforming him was impossible, and would subsequently run in the opposite direction whenever he showed up. She has the ability to create powerful gusts of wind with her multi-use giant leaf.

Dude, She's Like, in a Coma!: She was going through with a tradition where she put herself in suspended animation till a prospective mate woke her up by kissing her.

Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother was an alien tengu, while her father was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a famous Japanese warrior.

Human Alien: The only alien traits are the little crow wings on her head.

I Can Change My Beloved: She tries to reform Ataru – indeed, she puts a great deal of effort into it, while fighting off both Lum and Shinobu – but eventually gives up once she realizes that Ataru cannot be changed.

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Every potential mate is a failure. Ataru is a pervert, Mendo turned out to be too pathetic and cowardly, Ryuunosuke wasn't really a man like she thought, and Rei seemed like the one until she saw he was really an idiotic tiger-cow.

Ms. Fanservice: Wears a skimpy outfit, has several bath scenes and in one occasion her breasts are visible when one of her tengu remove her bodice.

Really 700 Years Old: She has a youthful appearance, but her father was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a famous warrior and one of Japan's greatest heroes, who lived in the 12th century.

The only reason she even tried to reform Ataru in the first place (aside from her culture's law) is because Lum dragged him away from their first meeting, prompting this:

"What is it about other people's things that makes me want them?"

Stripperiffic: Kurama has an outfit well established in all the episodes in which he appears, composed of a bodice black / blue laced on the breasts with a yellow bow, boots, several bracelets and a black collar.

Tengu: She is a Cute Monster Girl version of the Tengu (though she trades the long nose for little crow wings on her head and is thusly an avian Petting Zoo Person). She's also served by more traditional Karasu Tengu (which are runty little humanoid crows).

A firefighter who takes great pride in her work. When Ten was living with her, she would tell him stories of her work in the field, expressing her contempt for arsonists and pyromaniacs, who she feels should be sent straight to Hell. She is very busy and would leave him with a robotic nanny, which has contributed to his precociousness. Since her son breathes fire and uses his power liberally, he lives in terror of what will happen should she ever find out. She loves Ten very much, despite the rareness of her being able to visit him.

Sugar, Ginger and Pepper. A trio of teenage girls who currently attend the same junior high school that Lum, Benten, and Oyuki did. Due to their seniors' reputation for causing mischief, the Gang of Three seeks to outdo their predecessors by defeating them in combat, but most of the time, they resort to simple pranks and underhanded schemes.

Butt-Monkey: None of their schemes really work out, often with humiliating results. Being thoughtless jerks with a high opinion of themselves, they tend to have it coming. They even failed to seduce Ataru.

The antagonist from the first movie, Only You. She is the lovely ruler of planet Elle. When Ataru was a child, he played a game of shadow tag with Elle and it is a custom on her planet that stepping on someone's shadow counts as a marriage proposal. Now she has came to claim her husband.

Childhood Marriage Promise: She wants to marry Ataru even if by force because they played a game of shadow tag and on her planet stepping on someone's shadow is considered a marriage proposal. At the end it turns out Ataru never stepped in her shadow in the first place and therefore their engagement is null.

The Collector: She collects all of the handsome men that have ever loved her and freezes them for storage inside a giant refrigerator, to "keep their love forever fresh". She plans to make Mendou the 100,000th (and last, as the next day she'd marry Ataru and settle down).

Dude Magnet: She's attracted a considerable number of suitors by the time she shows up.

Forgotten Friend, New Foe: She met Ataru when they were both little kids, but Ataru forgot all about her until she shows up during the movie.

God Save Us from the Queen!: Downplayed example—she's a beloved ruler on her homeworld, but she's rather obstinante and determined to have her way no matter what.

Stupid Evil: While his schemes actually do manage to work to some extent, he fails at being imposing. In his entrance scene, he crashed into a wall and had to be brought into the infirmary to recuperate.

Rupa's childhood friend. Ever since they've been children, Carla has loved Rupa. When one day Rupa showed Carla a picture of Lum, his bride-to-be, Carla changed from a childhood friend to a violent assailant.

Ataru's father is a typical salaryman. Wearing a yukata around the house, he desires a nice and quiet homelife. In the anime his home is frequently destroyed, causing him to lament over the mortgage. Ataru's mother is a typical housewife, who is extremely ashamed of her son.

Adults Are Useless: Ataru's father just sits reading his newspaper hoping the insanity will stop.

Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their verbal abuse, both parents are genuinely upset when they think Ataru has died in an early chapter, with the mother even bursting into tears. The father cries out that Ataru may have been a fool, but he was their fool.

Butt-Monkey: Quiet, timid, and possessing very little dignity, Ataru's father tries his best to hide his face behind the newspaper during bad situations, often wishing he'd be treated better since he's the sole provider for the family.

Mrs. Robinson: Ataru's mother has a crush on Rei, to her husband's despair.

No Accounting for Taste: Together they have an annoyingly common domestic relationship that is either dull as dirt, or on the rocks.

No Sympathy: Mostly because of Ataru's mother; in the first manga story, Ataru's mother said "Ataru, you be sure to come home for the holidays!" and she always laments "I wish I never had him" throughout the manga and anime (sometimes in hearing range of Ataru). Atop that, there's the "omiai" scene in the movie Only You, where Ataru's parents force join with Lum's parents to force him to marry her officially...all so that Ataru's parents will get better lives for themselves on the Oni homeworld.

Ataru's parents are always struggling to make ends meet, even though Ataru's "wife" is a princess from a highly advanced alien planet (at one point, she casually pays an intergalactic taxi fare which amounts to the value of all the oil on planet Earth).

Ataru's dad regularly worries about how many more payments he needs to make on the house. Not once does the word "foreclosure" ever come up, and at the end of the series he and his family still have their home (despite it being completely destroyed several times).

Salaryman: Ataru's dad works long hours and worries about the mortgage, especially since his house is routinely destroyed.

Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Ataru's mother is constantly going "I wish I never had him." There's also a scene where both parents are away reminiscing about their life, and when they start talking about Ataru, both say that they had wanted a girl at the time.

A wandering monk. Cherry has amazing spiritual powers (or so he claims) and he often predicts doom for Ataru.

Big Eater: His vow apparently doesn't apply to food, as he is exceedingly gluttonous, and often offers his services in exchange for a free meal (or simply blatantly eating other's food despite not planning to help with anything, often eating everything before anyone else can have any).

Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: For reasons known only to the annoying monk himself, Cherry constantly interferes in Ataru's life and gives him grief for his corrupt personality, base desires and bad luck. He has taken a vested interest in seeing through his downfall. That said, he actually never showed any kind of malice and usually attempts to help the characters he came across (and actually did on very rare occasions). It's just that his attempts to help usually cause even more trouble.

Verbal Tic: Cherry ends most of his with "-ja", which is pretty stereotypical of old men in Japan.

Sakura

Voiced by: Machiko Washio (JP), Karen McIntyre (EN)

Cherry's niece. She was once a very sickly girl who suffered from a variety of ailments. Many of them were the result of spirits that infested her body. After meeting Ataru the first time, she tried to exorcise him, during which process, the demons who inhabited her transferred themselves to the unlucky young man, rendering her perfectly healthy. Soon afterward, she took a job as the Tomobiki High school nurse, where she again encountered Ataru and half-accidentally exorcised the disease spirit still haunting him from that encounter. Like her uncle she loves eating and sometimes gets into a fight with him over it.

Dude Magnet: Besides her fiance Tsubame, she is the object of affection for pretty much every male at Tomobiki High. Ten also developed romantic feelings for her, but she treats him in a motherly manner.

Hello, Nurse!: Regular reaction of every male to her, especially Ataru (once he gets over his fear of her). When she arrives at Tomobiki High practically every male student gathers outside the gates to greet her in this way.

Hospital Hottie: One of her Berserk Buttons is to see the boys hurt themselves to have an excuse to go to her for help; she beats them up as punishment.

Ill Girl: Born with a weak constitution, she suddenly collides with a runaway Ataru outside of a ramen place. She detects evil spirits within him and offers to purify him, but her true intentions were to transfer the evil spirits attached to her illnesses to him.

Lust Object: For much of the male contingent of Tomobiki High School with Ataru being the first of all.

A giant ghost cat that goes to great lengths to sit under a kotatsu because it hates being cold. He originally was a kitten who was abandoned centuries ago and froze to death, so the spirit does little else but seek out warmth. He often can be seen as a companion for either Cherry or the Tomobiki High Principal, usually enjoying tea with them. He also occasionally acts as a companion to Ten which could be in part due to Ten's ability to breathe fire.

Badass Adorable: He is a cute giant human-cat, but also very strong. The only character stronger than him is likely Oyuki.

Shuutaro's younger sister. Ryoko is a spoiled girl whose only amusement seems to be the creation and execution of elaborate plans intended to drive her older brother mad.

Annoying Younger Sibling: She finds the greatest pleasure in tormenting her brother which is a full time occupation of hers. She knows how overprotective her brother is of her and she likes to use it against him. She'll concoct intricate plots that serve to ultimately infuriate, humiliate, or even kill him. She'll even flirt with Ataru just to see her brother fly off the handle.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts like a cute and innocent girl, but she'll try and harm you… and then act like nothing happened.

Catchphrase: She frequently states "I hold no grudges" as she is leaving a trail of grenades behind her.

Loving Bully: An ambiguous case. She has been pranking and tormenting Tobimaro since childhood and also claims to be in love with him. It's not clear if she's serious about her "love" for him, given her sadistic tendencies. If she is, this is still quite disturbing.

Manipulative Bitch: She certainly appears to be a sweet girl. But underneath this veil of innocence lurks a twisted mastermind.

Royal Brat: Ryouko has a legion of servants, and dresses in kimonos and Victorian dresses while dutifully pulling out grenades and voodoo dolls or putting on a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to mess with her brother and his friends, all while conveying that she never holds grudges.

Sadist: She uses underhanded mischief and devilish practical jokes as a primary source of pleasure.

Screwy Squirrel: Growing up, always getting her way, and having every luxury a girl could want meant Ryoko became bored easily. But she found that causing trouble and watching people squirm was the best form of entertainment.

The Sociopath: She requires little to no provocation to mess with her brother or anyone else, all the while bemoaning how she had "done all she could" to help her dear older brother.

Star-Crossed Lovers: Subverted, Ryouko claims she and Tobimaro are seeing each other against the wishes of their feuding families. But once she gets the chance to elope with a tied up Tobimaru, the first thing she does is put him a trash can in a seedy back alley.

The very proud and dignified heads of the Mendou conglomerate. The father is a bit of a flake and a jokester which he often hides behind an air of seriousness. The mother is old fashioned and refuses to use modern conveniences.

The son of the second richest family in Japan and Mendou's rival. Although he and Mendou were childhood friends, they had a falling out concerning a long-standing baseball rivalry, even though neither is any good at baseball—Ton can't pitch and Mendou cannot swing, and so Ton returns to settle the score.

Tobimaro's sister. The very beautiful and petite girl was isolated, according to the Mizonokuji family's tradition, from any and all males from the moment of her birth until the age of 16, at which time an omiai will be held for her to get married. As such, even her brother was unaware of her existence until then. Thanks to her daily training and the genetics she inherited from her mother, she is insanely strong. Nevertheless she is extremely timid and deathly afraid of males, in part because the first one she ever met was Ataru Moroboshi.

And Call Him "George"!: Being loved by Asuka is perhaps more dangerous than scaring her because one hug from her can crush a man's spine.

Beautiful All Along: Asuka doesn't look very attractive at first because of the armor she wears. After Lum accidentally destroys the armor, we see how beautiful she actually is.

Big Brother Attraction: Subversion. The extremely sheltered Asuka fears all men except her "big brother" ("a special kind of man who is just like you!"). She considers Mendou (her fiance due to a family agreement) her brother because she heard Ryoko refer to him as such once. Also Ryuunosuke, since she was wearing her sarashi that matched her actual brother Tobimaro's. Guess which "brother" has to endure rib-crushing hugs in his bed or bath? Hint: he's rather terrified of this and their mother blames it on him.

Break the Cutie: Parodied. She would likely be the one to break anyone in half. Now, if only her nemesis wasn't Ataru...

Sheltered Aristocrat: She was kept isolated from the outside world her entire life to avoid contact with any and all males, according to the Mizonokuji family's tradition. As a result, she's very naive and develops an extreme fear of men because of Ataru.

A very creepy individual. His family ran a small seaside teashop for generations, and he seeks an heir to continue the business after he dies. However, he believes that only a man can run it and his late wife Masako left him only a daughter, Ryuunosuke. Not one to let that get in his way, he proceeded to raise her as a boy and succeeded in making her a man among men, if only she were a man. He also is inspired almost entirely by the sea. If he gets too motivated, he shouts "I LOVE THE SEA!!", which is accompanied by a massive tidal wave regardless of his location.

Abusive Dad: He fulfills at least several of the types of abuse in regards to his daughter Ryuunosuke. Apparently solely because of his insane levels of chauvinism, he is convinced that a "mere" girl is unable to run his precious (run down) tea shop, and so he has forcibly raised her as a boy, despite her protests, since her mother Masako died left him. He refuses to allow her to buy any feminine clothes, both by refusing to give her money to do so and stealing/destroying any she does manage to get, demands she speak in masculine fashion, refers to her only as a male, frightens off any boys she acts interested in, encourages girls who are attracted to her, insults and mocks her femininity, and otherwise goes out of his way to thwart any attempt by her to discover her feminine side. He routinely enforces his desires with violence, and though she is quick to degrade him and beat the tar out of him in return, he always manages to beat her. For some insane reason he has dozens of pictures of himself, baby Ryuunosuke, and women hired for that purpose posing, so many that even he can't remember which one of them is the real Masako Fujinami, and so Ryuunosuke will never know what her mother looked like (although he has claimed at least that Ryuunosuke looks like her mother – and Lum checked it with a lie detector just in case). Despite his daughter's extreme distaste and discomfort, he set up for her an Arranged Marriage with a male-to-female Wholesome Crossdresser, Nagisa.

Archnemesis Dad: He is quite insistent on treating his daughter like a man, down to violent fisticuffs and paralyzing poisons on a regular basis, and would only let her act feminine over his dead body. Ryuunosuke hates her father. Then again, it's Played for Laughs.

An employee at the Fate Production Bureau which makes doorknobs to the Dream Realm. A bumbling yet kind-hearted young man who wears a rabbit costume which allows him to travel freely to and from subspace. He ends up falling in love with Shinobu after she finds him passed out and hungry in the street and gives him some food.

A young man who grew up all alone in the Mendou Family Electric Jungle and was raised by his "Grandfather" (a TV). He has built up a resistance to electricity and therefore cannot be affected by Lum's shocks. Shingo falls in love with Lum and kidnaps her, but when she is rescued by Ataru and the others Shingo falls in love with Shinobu. He later becomes Mendou's personal ninja bodyguard.

A guy who was raised as a girl. He is introduced as a ghost because he and his father died as a result of overeating sea urchin-flavored kakigori. Long ago he was engaged to Ryuunosuke through their parents, and fell in love with her upon meeting her. Later Nagisa gets a new flesh-and-blood body and moves in with Ryuunosuke.

Raised as the Opposite Gender: Similar to Ryuunosuke's case, Nagisa's father raised him as a girl because he wanted a daughter. Nagisa seems to be more comfortable with his upbringing than Ryuunosuke, though.

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